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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Holiday crowds watched tennis matches and auto races – along with some mining-related contests in the Coeur d’Alene mining district.

Wallace hosted a rock-drilling contest, which attracted nine teams of miners from around the Inland Northwest. The Butte team of Peroia and Hill won the contest by drilling to a depth of more than 37 inches in the alloted time. That was two inches deeper than the runners up.

Wardner hosted its own rock-drilling contest along with the “mucking competition” won by the team of Jones and Williams, who shoveled two cubic yards of gravel into a box in three minutes and 49 seconds. There was another race, called the “side hill race up Haystack Peak,” but there were no details about its nature. 

From the holiday injury beat: The 1913 Fourth of July was not entirely safe and sane. A report arrived from Athol about two farmers who were celebrating the holiday by exploding dynamite caps. A spark got into the box of caps and exploded all of them at once. The blast tore a large hole in the barn floor and embedded “countless” tiny bits of metal shrapnel in the men’s bodies. 

The farmers were suffering intense pain but were “resting as easily as could be expected.”